1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a version update method and a version update program of a communication system application program.
2. Description of the Related Art
An application program (software) usually undergoes various updates of improvement of an already existing function, addition of a new function, etc., for enhancing the essential performance of the program and enlarging the scope of the program.
However, if an update makes its appearance, the already introduced old version is not necessarily weeded out and when a certain time period has elapsed, a further update advances, resulting in mixing various versions of the program.
For example, in an application program for transferring data via a network such as remote data conference or videoconference, which will be hereinafter referred to as communication system program, if definition of the communication procedure of data, the communication format of data, etc., is not precise, it is also assumed that communication cannot be conducted. Thus, compatibility among the versions (communications can be conducted among the versions) becomes more important even for the same application program.
To update the communication system program, it becomes difficult to make drastic improvement concerning communications (procedure change, data addition, etc.,) to maintain upward compatibility.
At present, to promote updates of application programs, each software vender provides a site for updating application programs on their respective home pages, etc., and executes a downloading service into the user via the Internet (a manual system of the user and an automatic system such that when the operating apparatus of the application program such as a PC is started, the service is conducted are available).
An example of updating an application program in the related art will be discussed with FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1, numeral 1 denotes a downloading site (server) for the software vender creating a communication system application program to update the communication system application program. The downloading site 1 (server) is provided on the home page, etc., for executing downloading service into the user via the Internet. Numerals 2-1 and 2-2 denote terminals in which the communication system application program is installed; they are connected through a communication network 3 such as the Internet or an intra-company LAN.
Updating the version of the communication system application program in FIG. 1 is executed as follows. First, the terminal (PC) (client A) 2-1 is started (step S1) and the communication system application program (communication system software) is started. (Step S2). Next, the downloading site (server) is accessed through the communication network 3 and update information of the communication system application program is acquired. (Step S3). In the terminal 2-1, the version information acquired from the downloading site 1 is compared with the version information held in the terminal 2-1 and if a new version not held in the terminal 2-1 exists, a request to download the communication system application program of the new version is sent to the downloading site 1 (server) (Step S4). In the terminal 2-1, the communication system application program is replaced with the communication system application program received from the downloading site 1 (Step S5).
At step S5, both the new-version communication system application program and the old-version communication system application program can also be held without replacing the old-version communication system application program with the new-version communication system application program.
In the terminal (PC) (client B) 2-2, version update of the communication system application program is also executed in a similar manner to that described above. The terminal 2-2 and the server 1 are connected with each other via the Internet 3 in the same way. However, the illustration of the connection between the terminal 2-2 and the server 1 is omitted in FIG. 1.
Point-to-point (PtoP) communications using the new-version communication system application program are made possible between the terminal (PC) (client A) 2-1 and the terminal (PC) (client B) 2-2.
As the version update art of an application program, the following system is disclosed in JP-A-2000-035879.
“In an information system of client-server type with a server computer and a client computer connected by a communication line, a client application update system comprising a version management program for making a comparison between version information of each application in the client computer and version information of each application in the server computer and the application requiring version update as the result of the comparison is downloaded from the server computer into the client computer, thereby updating the version of the client application, characterized by means for retaining version information of the version management program (which will be hereinafter referred to as management program version information) in the server computer and the client computer, means for making a comparison between the management program version information in the client computer and the management program version information in the server computer when the version management program is started, means for downloading the version management program of the newest version existing in the server computer into the client computer for storage if version update is required as the result of the comparison, and means for starting the version management program of the newest version stored in the client computer as the version management program at the timing at which power is again turned on after off. (c.f. claim 1 of JP-A-2000-035879)”
As the version update art of an application program, the following system is disclosed in JP-A-2003-177921.
“An application maintenance system comprising a customer who uses a purchased application program in a customer terminal, an application vendor for developing the application program, the application vendor having in a vendor server a database containing fault information about fault occurring in the application program, module information of the application program with the fault corrected, customer information containing the name of the customer using the application program, and the version number of the application program used by the customer, a shop for selling the application program, the shop having a shop terminal for sending application program information of the application program purchased by the customer and the customer information to the application vendor, and a network for connecting the customer terminal, the vendor server, and the shop terminal, characterized in that the fault information about the fault occurring in the customer terminal is automatically collected and the corrected module of the application program to which a correction has been made according to the fault information is automatically applied to the customer terminal (c.f. claim 1 of JP-A-2003-177921)”.
Further, as the version update art of an application program, the following system is disclosed in JP-A-11-212794.
“A program correction system wherein from a disk storing different programs for each version, the program is loaded, whereby an old program can be corrected to the new program, characterized in that a plurality of programs are transferred to the disk for each version from a remote terminal and any desired version is specified from the programs, whereby the program corresponding to the version is loaded (c.f. claim 1 of JP-A-11-212794)”.